Synopsis of La caricia del ángel
In a city full of victims. . . it’s hard to choose just one.
The young college student Chelsea Hart is very excited to spend the last hours of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite club in New York, so much so that she separates herself from her group of friends when they decide to return to the hotel. The next morning, while her friends wait worriedly in the hotel lobby, some runners find Chelsea’s body in East River Park, with her hair, blond and wavy, brutally cut.
Detective Ellie Hatcher takes over the case and her prime suspects are the group of men last seen with the young woman drinking alcohol. But before she can gather the preliminary evidence of the grisly murder, it gets the attention of the media and makes headlines, something the police department doesn’t like. When Ellie rashly builds the case against Jake Myer, a young hedge fund manager, the department’s top brass and the district attorney’s office are elated: the case soon dissipates, the media promotes the department’s quick work, and Ellie will be a witness in the trial against Myers.
But Ellie has her doubts. Chelsea’s murder is disturbingly similar to three other deaths that occurred almost a decade ago: the victims were young, female, and in each case, the killer had cut hair as a souvenir.
Ellie’s research draws her into a nightlife world of exclusive clubs, luxury, and hedonistic consumption. And her search for the truth not only confronts her fellow police officers, it also places her under the watchful eye of a psychopath eager to add the young detective to his list.